I get the need to dramatize things but Matthew Cuthbert WOULD NOT attempt suicide with a gun.  It’s the most ridiculously OOC thing I’ve seen.

I’ve started Anne with an E after resisting for a while out of worry and it’s both as delightful as I hoped and as wrong as I worried.  Some parts are really good and some parts just make me want to hit my head against a wall.  But Matthew and the gun is the worst.

Orphan Gilbert running off to work is pretty bad too.

Anne’s Jane Eyre love delights me.

Yikes! I couldn’t handle any version strayed so horribly from book canon.

So you probably don’t remember the bit in the book about the con artists convincing everyone there was gold in Avonlea, right?  Or the part where Gilbert worked a ship and traveled to Trinidad?

My darling you really are not going to want to watch Anne with an E.  It started out well and Anne really is wonderfully in character and Matthew other than the one scene is perfect (did you ever watch Road to Avonlea?  He’s Jasper Dale.) Marilla isn’t quite right and Rachel is too nice and the friendship with Diana isn’t quite right.  But now it’s getting more and more off the rails.

So many people were excited that I had higher hopes.

I’m stuck now and can’t stop watching.  Don’t make my mistake!

I don’t want to butt in, but I have some thoughts to share?

To be honest, the reason why I love AwaE so much is for the reason that you seem to dislike it, nothingeverlost... BECAUSE it’s stepping away from its source material and fitting to the current social context in which it’s airing. I mean, that’s the point of adaptation, right? To refresh, revitalise, to take narratives/ideas to new places and new meaning. We get lots of cool Canadian history nuggets in all 3 seasons which aren’t present in the source material. I mean, the film set in WW2 is COMPLETELY 110% out of canon too, but that doesn't mean viewers didn’t enjoy it or thought it wasn’t a good narrative. To me, it was very cool to see Anne in that historical context, even if I didn’t particularly love it. I guess... everybody can like what they like.

You don’t like AwaE, and that’s cool.

But when one type of media is adapted to another type of media, elision and interpolation are necessary, because they can’t be adapted word-for-word, and also because the resulting media must be different than the first (or second, or third... I mean, as an example, the Invasion of the Body Snatchers novel has been made into 4 VERY different films, that I know of...) otherwise what’s the point of making it? If it’s the same as what came before, then why bother? It’s not doing anything new, or interesting, so what’s the reason for making it, because wringing money out of something?  

Yes, there are some changes in Anne with an E which depart radically from the series. I didn’t particularly enjoy the con men plot line either. But the various changes in AwaE are there for a reason, to explore themes relevant to today’s audiences: trauma, found family, empathy, social justice, friendship, mental health issues, relationships, work ethic, rural life vs city life, Canadian history... I could keep listing things, but I’ll stop. ^_^;;

I watched this series with my parents, and they really don't like the same types of media that I do, so it was SO GREAT for us to watch this together as a family and enjoy it and talk about it, what we liked and didn’t like, how relevant it is to us or people we know... I guess I have some emotional investment in it because of that?

We may not agree with everything AwaE is doing, but what it IS doing is bringing a younger generation that LOVE the adaptation into the fandom. They may go read the books, and/or watch any of the other adaptations, and that must be a good thing, right? Keeping Anne Shirley and LMMM’s work alive and meaningful to a big audience has to be the goal, right?

As a Canadian (and I have visited PEI, whoo, that was a long 3-day drive!) I love that LMMM’s work is so global: it’s been translated into so many languages and re-intepreted by artists and musicians and filmmakers so many times... it’s MIND-BOGGLING how much of the world loves Anne. The wall of covers of AoGG translated for different countries BLEW MY MIND! Anne is so loved all over the world, and I guess I just see AwaE as another step in Anne’s ongoing life. <3 Maybe the next step will be more to your taste?

Anyway, nothingeverlost, I hope that you will get SOME enjoyment out of AwaE, there’s some interesting (to me) stuff to come (and more Jane Eyre!)! 

MY BELOVED WRITERS WE NEED DARK MAGIC!EMMA FIC

The bitch had taken Henry.

Taken him away like he was an animal or a thing.

Emma saw red.

She was going to make Regina pay.

…

It wasn’t until her hand was buried in a chest, squeezing a heart, holding the Evil Queen pinned against a wall, that she realized what she was doing.

A sick grin twisted Regina’s face, “Aren’t you the HERO, Miss Swan?” She taunted.

Emma pressed her lips together.

A voice sounded from behind her.

“Aye, she is,” the Pirate said.

She swallowed.

He stepped up behind her, chest against her back, lips brushing her ear, and added “And she is better than this.”

“She hurt Henry!” Emma protested, squeezing Regina’s heart harder and watching her squirm, ”She took him against his will, Killian, and terrified him! She—”

“—Is not worth a minute of your time, Emma.” He cut her off, running a hand down her arm and circling her wrist with his fingers gently. “Don’t do what your mother did. Don’t do what she does.”

Emma closed her eyes, knowing exactly what he was going to say.

“Don’t turn into her. Your lad will see you the same way if you go through with this.”

He was right. She hated it. Hating him for saying it. She loved it. She loved him for saying it.

She let him draw her hand from Regina’s chest, his dagger pressed to the Witch’s stomach should she try anything.

Regina vanished herself in a cloud of purple smoke.

Henry ran out of the house and threw his arms around her middle. She wrapped an arm around him, holding back her sobs.

She should never let the magic control her again. She had too much to loose.

Killian tried to withdraw, to allow her time with her son, but she caught his arm and held him fast. He froze, then relaxed. Henry accepted him and pulled him into the hug.

They were like a family now.

—-

I wrote this on the fly. Whoops. :)

IT HURTS

I LOVE YOU

I'm glad you liked it!

THANK YOU FOR ASKING FOR IT

AND THUS INSPIRING ME TO WRITE IT

:)

I really just wrote it over about 20 minutes during work today (when no one was coming in to ask for help in the drop-in centre I work in at my Uni)!